Theater Whore: Unknown

"They had me convinced that I was crazy. But when they came to take me I knew."

I like Mr. Neeson. I like him even more when he’s punching people in the face to get what he wants. Unknown from appearances has the look of a film that could go two ways. Thankfully it went a good way. This movie could have easily been a straight up action film, psychological thriller, or had your attention and then threw a retarded ass twist in the end like most movies do nowadays.

Let me vent about that for a second. A lot of you (the general public) have been duped into thinking a movie with no real ending is an ending. No, I don’t mean like the ending to Inception which is meant to fuck with you. I mean films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activities which are meant to have you go “Oh, that was better than I thought!” Better than you thought does not mean good and no ending does not mean mysterious. Its lazy writing! Speaking of lazy writing, on to my review!

Oh, and of course there will be spoilers.

Liam Neeson (Chronicles of Narnia, A-Team, Taken, Schindler’s List, Clash of the Titans, Batman Begins, Kinsey) stars as Dr. Martin Harris a scientist who arrives in Berlin to speak at a conference. His wife played by January Jones (Love, Actually, Anger Management, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) is left in the hotel lobby while he races to retrieve his briefcase he left at the airport. One tragic cab ride, four days in a coma, plus finally finding your wife who doesn’t know who you are anymore equals your brain being fucked with.

He finds out that he has been replaced by another man played by Aidan Quinn (Benny & Joon, Jonah Hex, Desperately Seeking Susan) who has his name, his life, and knows everything that he does. This leads to a very uncomfortable scene during a dinner in which you start to wonder if Dr. Harris really is who he thinks he is.

Dr. Harris finds the cab driver who was driving when he crashed and saved his life played by Diane Kruger (Troy, National Treasure, Inglorious Basterds) wants nothing to do with him. And with good reason! It gets to the point where anyone that he talks to ends up getting murdered!

Dr. Harris meets an old man who offers to help him find out who he is played by Bruno Ganz who is a very likeable former German spy. The more they dig the more people die. One of the most intense car chase scenes I’ve seen in quite some time occurs and I love chase scenes in Europe because the streets are small and people just barely not die. This scene made me wonder “How does a damn scientist know how to drive like this…?” This movie had a really action packed feel almost as if the director and writers saw A History of Violence and said “This would’ve been way better if there was more action.”

I wont ruin the ending for any of you. I really enjoyed this film and the theater even clapped at a few scenes before it even ended. Not a popcorn film but definitely action packed. Liam Neeson can almost do no wrong in my eyes at this point. This man is magical in pretty much whatever he does. Even after seeing him stab someone to death with a shard of glass women still want to sleep with him and men wish that at the age of 58 they can be as badass as him.